Yesterday's Poll winner was Doximity, earning 26% of the RWW readers' vote. Doximity is a social networking site for medical professionals.

Today's Companies:

Illume Software is a Needham, Mass.-based company that creates mobile apps, most notably the iZUP app. The iZUP app uses GPS technology to sense when drivers are on the road, this is when the app blocks or holds all emails, phones and texts, to ensure a safer drive. Illume Software raised $2.4m today in new funding. Jawbone, maker of bluetooth headsets and other forms of audio technology, raised $49m.

TreeFrog Interactive, a San Diego-based web design and interactive company raised $2m, according to an SEC filing. IHIGH, a social networking and news site for high school athletes and coaches, according to an SEC filing today.

PlaSec, maker of a collaboration platform used for network access control, identity management and event management, raised $3.4m today, according to an SEC filing.

Which of these companies do you think is most likely to change the world?

Yesterday's Poll Winner was Sponto, creator of a mobile app designed for college students to locate parties in and around their campus, using the GPS within their phone. Sponto earned 39% of the RWW readers' vote.

Today's Companies:

Topsy, a search engine for that includes social media sites, just added a video-specific search criteria and raised $15m in funding. London-based Just Eat is site for Europeans to place to go orders online, instead of picking up the phone to get takeout. This company says it will expand how many restaurants they list with their latest round of funding of $48m.

Doximity, a San Mateo, CA-based social networking site for medical professionals which raised $10.8m in its first round of financing. SustainX, a company that is developing technology for energy storage using compressed air, raised $14.4m.

Celergo is a global payroll service delivering paychecks in 97 countries. Celergo raised $15m in financing. Advanced Animal Diagnostics is behind technologies designed to diagnose farm animals quickly and with accuracy. This company raised $11m in a Series B round of financing.

Internet Pawn, an online loan site where the users put down real possessions as collateral, until the loan is paid in full, raised $2m, according to an SEC filing today.

Of these seven different companies, which will change our world the most? Place your vote in the poll below.

Yesterday's Poll winner was Altobridge, a company that's bringing the mobile market to developing countries. Altobridge earned 59% of RWW readers' vote.

Today's Companies:

Pricelock, based in Redwood City, CA, raised $12 million in funding today. Pricelock provides technology and commodities knowledge to gauge fuel prices for businesses in the U.S. BoostCTR, creates optimized ads by having copywriters rewrite the text within the ads, for greater sales. BoostCTR is based in San Francisco and raised $1.6 million from several different investors.

Spigit, provider of management software accessible via employee's phones and Facebook account, inked $10 million today. Sponto makes a mobile app exclusively for college students, helping them find parties via the GPS in their mobile phone. Sponto's app allows students to see social events going on and around campus, all at once and in real time.

DailyWorth is a community-driven, financial information site geared for women. DailyWorth secured $850,000 in funding according to an SEC filing. Jumio, a company still in the development stages with a focus on making all monetary transactions electronic, just got a boost with $1.5 million in funding, also according to an SEC filing.

2tor, an online higher education startup based in New York City, raised $32.5 million in a Series C round of funding. 2tor partners with graduate programs to make more classes accessible online.

Which company do you think will change the world the most?

Friday's Poll winner was RadiumOne, garnering %14 of participating RWW readers' vote. RadiumOne, a digital advertising network which uses social analytics and data to target consumers, raised $21m on Friday.

Today's Companies:

Pittsburg-based event-ticketing company, ShowClix, raised $1.65m in a Series B round of funding today. The aim of this company is to provide a ticketing platform for mid to large size promoters, venues and organizers for sales and management.

Altobridge, a mobile network focused on emerging markets in developing parts of the world,raised $12m. Broadcast Pix Inc., a Massachusetts-based video-production equipment manufacturer, raised $810,000, according to an SEC filing.

Digitili provider of online storage, raised $1.2m today, according to an SEC filing. UpNext Wireless sells an array of mobile devices, with a focus on bringing telecommunication technology to the people of the Hawaiian Islands. UpNext Wireless raised $556,800, according to an SEC filing.

We want to know which company you think will change the world, place your vote in the poll below.

Yesterday's poll winner was Clovr Media, which inked $8.3 million in its second round of funding. Clovr Media is a digital advertising startup that converts text, banner, mobile ads, video and text into Card Link Offers (CLOs). This technology is definitely something to watch develop. And RWW readers agreed; it earned 49% of yesterday's vote.

Today's Companies

RadiumOne, a digital advertising network, raised $21 million in a Series B round of funding today. This company uses social data to create targeted ad campaigns. San Francisco-based VigLink raised $5.4 million in investment funds. VigLink helps Web publishers monetize their sites via the links attached to their sites, generating revenue from outbound traffic.

IdentityForge makes software for businesses to secure identity for online transactions. IdentityForge raised $1 million today, according to an SEC filing. Another company raising money - $627,000 - on the SEC filing list is Nimbit. Nimbit is a fan marketing, sales and distribution site geared to manage your music business.

Between these four companies, which will be the one to affect our world in a significant way?

Yesterday's Poll winner was StackExchange, a realtime question-and-answer forum site used heavily by programmers, but also by many others seeking advice on one of the 46 topics StackExchange addresses. This site came out far ahead of the seven other companies listed, earning 53% of RRW readers' votes.

Today's Companies:

Topsy, a real-time search engine that includes social sites within its Web, raised $15 million. Clovr Media, a digital advertising startup that converts banner, text, mobile ads or video into Card Linked Offers (CLOs), raised $8.3 million in its second round of funding.

GrubHub raised $20 million in funding, which will help the restaurant location directory grow its existing technologies and expand into new cities. It wants to make it even easier for us to order in a pizza (the most heavily ordered cuisine according to its "about page). SnagAJob.com, an online employment site with listings from full-time to one-hour commitments, raised $27 million in a Series C round of funding.

Rovio, the Finnish game company behind Angry Birds, raised $42 million in Series A round. Niklas Zennstrom, founder of Skype, is one of several investors. GroupCommerce, a commerce platform targeted at group-buying for publishers and merchants, raised $8 million.

BackType, a San Francisco-based Web-marketing company that helps businesses understand social analytics, raised $1 million.

With all this money being invested, which company do you think is ready to change our world?

Yesterday's poll winner was HubSpot, which raised $32m. HubSpot makes marketing software geared for small and medium-sized businesses and it earned 39% of RWW readers' vote.

Today's Companies:

StumbleUpon, the popular discovery engine that recommends the best sites for interests that the user specifies, raised $17m in a Series B round of financing. Tier 3, a cloud-computing service based in Seattle, raised $8.5m.

DailyBooth is a photo-based social networking site, which enables users to capture images of themselves and upload them daily in a process known as, "boothing." It raised $6m in its first round of funding. Stack Exchange recently changed its name from Stack Overflow and raised $12m in a Series B round of of funding. Stack Exchange is a network of 46 question and answer sites, covering a wide breadth of topics. For example, I explored the cooking forum and learned about how to prevent my homemade soup from sticking to the bottom of my pot.

Flite (formerly Widgetbox) is a web-based advertising platform that raised $12m in Series C investments. Grid2Home, a smart grid software developer based in San Diego, raised $12m according to an SEC filing.

Startup Digest, a members-only email service that lists the best startup opportunities and happenings in 50+ cities raised $200,000 in funding from the Kauffman Foundation. MindSnacks makes learning games for touch-based devices and it raised $1.2m from an assortment of investors. Their focus is on short, "bite-sized," interactive language learning experiences.

Again, we've got eight very different companies raising funding, which do you think could take that money and change the world?

Yesterday's poll winner, Qriosly, asks real questions of us on our mobile phones and iPads about products or companies, instead of using a traditional ad placement. RWW voting readers were most interested by this company; it earned 72% of the vote.

Today's Companies

HomePipe Networks has created a free networking app that allows the user to access their home computer from their mobile phone. HubSpot, a marketing software company that generates leads for small business, was invested in by Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Salesforce.com in a Series D round.

Fourth Wall Studios combines the real with the virtual in alternate-reality entertainment for multiple platforms (phones, pcs, etc.). Breezy is a mobile app that enables us to direct our printer through a phone, eliminating the need to plug our computer into the printer directly.

LearnBoost raised a debt funding round. The company makes software for teachers that allows them to create lesson plans, manage grades, calendars and attendance, all using one interface. Lastly, AdGrok helps small businesses with keyword ad campaigns on Google.

Which one of these six companies is most interesting to you?

Friday's poll winner was Social Guides, which raised $1.5m to further help Web businesses connect using social media; 49% of RWW readers who voted were most excited about this company among the four others listed.

Today's Companies

Relay Rides allows us to borrow cars from our neighbors, instead of renting a car. SpareFoot helps us find storage space, even for short periods of time (this would have been awesome for college summer breaks!).

Kik raised the most amount of venture capital today and is poised to become another big group messaging app, which is interesting in the context that Beluga (a similar messaging app) was just acquired by Facebook last week.

Gigya helps Web companies navigate social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. ZoomSafer provides risk management software aimed at keeping employees from using their mobile phones while driving, a dangerous idea and a serious liability for the company. Qriously replaces traditional ads on our mobile devices with questions about the would-be product or company, while gathering location information of the user and real-time feedback.

With six very different companies receiving funding today, which one will you keep an eye on?

]]> http://readwrite.com/2011/03/07/6_tech_companies_that_raised_venture_capital_today_which_will_change_the_world_poll http://readwrite.com/2011/03/07/6_tech_companies_that_raised_venture_capital_today_which_will_change_the_world_poll Venture Funding Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:30:00 -0800 Leela Cyd Ross Today we're talking about $15.6m invested in a diverse set of 5 different tech companies. We've got fun educational apps for kids, a program to help small businesses understand the how-tos of social media and a few other companies worth noting. As we do briefly each day - let us know which of these companies fresh from the battle of fundraising looks most interesting to you.

Yesterday's poll winner was Ampirus, which raised $25 million for the development of energy efficient lithium batteries. 81% of RWW readers voting said they were most excited about Ampirus among the companies that announced funding yesterday.

A little more information about these companies: Opininaded enables us to ask about anything and get feedback from real people in real time. Context Logic hasn't launched yet, but looks to bring the right ads to the right consumers.

Ruckus Media makes interactive family apps where movie stars like Meryl Streep narrate classic children's stories. Social Guides helps small businesses navigate the demands of social networking. Crowd Gather, they're making community forums with broad applications.

These five companies just got an investment boost. Which of these companies intrigues you the most, readers?

]]> http://readwrite.com/2011/03/04/5_tech_companies_that_raised_funding_today_-_which http://readwrite.com/2011/03/04/5_tech_companies_that_raised_funding_today_-_which Venture Funding Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:14:01 -0800 Leela Cyd Ross Every day behind the scenes, investors and startups are putting their heads together to make new bets on what they hope will become the technologies of the future. Today three very different kinds of tech companies, each related to the topics we cover here at ReadWriteWeb, revealed new investments.

One wants to make the battery power on devices we use to access the Web last longer. The second is a company that helps others navigate the world of Facebook advertising. The third is a stealthy provider of anti-malware services that models its Web traffic analysis software off of the workings of biological science. These three companies just got a boost to keep working to bring their technologies to market. As we often like to do in rounding up funding news, we'd like to ask in a poll: which of these companies intrigues you the most, readers?

]]> http://readwrite.com/2011/03/03/three_tech_companies_that_raised_funding_today_-_w http://readwrite.com/2011/03/03/three_tech_companies_that_raised_funding_today_-_w Polls Thu, 03 Mar 2011 07:49:13 -0800 Leela Cyd Ross Bryce Roberts is co-founder of O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) and an investor worth paying attention to. Roberts is in the news this week because of his high-profile critique of Angellist, the hot new investment network Robert Scoble has called the new Silicon Valley hype machine.

Roberts celebrates 10 years in venture capital this month. He began as part of Salt Lake City's Wasatch Venture Fund (now Epic Ventures), an affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, in March of 2001. We thought readers might like to know more about this interesting player in the tech community.

"I tend towards a more concentrated approach to seed investing where we make fewer, larger, investments and take an active role in working with the companies we fund. Frankly, I just don't buy the notion that making an investment is akin to throwing a dart in the dark. Worse, I think its a dangerous idea to promote."

-Bryce Roberts,
Why I Deleted My AngelList Account

Since co-founding the OATV fund in 2005, Roberts has made investments in the popular geo-location site Foursquare (where he's a board member), Parakey (founded by Firefox creator Blake Ross and acquired by Facebook), UK-based Path Intelligence, a site dedicated to tracking shopping patterns and "quantified self" fitness tracker service RunKeeper.  As an undergrad, he studied philosophy at Brigham Young University.

Roberts recently offered some interesting advice to would-be fund raisers who've not yet launched their companies.  "If you're looking for funding for a prelaunch product or service, you'll need a to be a very interesting person [or someone] with deep expertise in your field," Roberts wrote in a guest post on Mashable. "Amplifying that expertise through blogs, Twitter, live streams will get you the attention of VCs, too. If you don't qualify as either, all the right intros in the world won't get you VC funding."

You can follow Roberts on Twitter (where he's most active), his personal blog Bryce.vc, on Facebook or on Quora.

]]> http://readwrite.com/2011/03/01/bryce_roberts_is_co-founder_of http://readwrite.com/2011/03/01/bryce_roberts_is_co-founder_of People in Tech Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:21:14 -0800 Leela Cyd Ross